Sunday, January 19, 2014

Poppy

At a small road side cafe in central Turkey, a beautiful dried poppy seed pod stood in a bed of poppy seeds.The poppy pod, of course, is the source of opium.While the seed pod/capsule is still green, incisions are made.The latex, a viscous fluid, that is exuded through the incisions are collected and dried. That is raw opium.From opium, morphine are other substances are extracted.

The poppy seeds, on the other hand, are edible and used in many foods. For example, as spice as well as decoration on bread. They can also be pressed for oil.

I was told that there is a very small amount of morphine in poppy seeds. Hence they may cause false positive results in drug tests.